-By Amanda
Hi all, since this is my first post here I’d just like to
say welcome!
Hopefully your experience with Deakin so far has been good, although it may
take some time to find your feet, or your bus. I know that it took me a while. Mainly
because before I started Uni I had never taken any form of public transport on
my own, and then suddenly I had to travel to Geelong!
I hate public transport.
I’m so grateful that it exists, because I don’t drive, but I still hate
it. Getting from point A to point B is sooooo much easier if you can drive
because you can take whichever route you want. If I were to drive to Waurn
Ponds from where I live, it would take about 45 minutes. It once took me 4
hours to get from my house to Waurn Ponds. Four.
Long. Hours.
How did that happen? I missed a bus. That then meant that I
missed a train, which meant that I had to wait two hours for the next one, and
that train happened to be running late and meant that I missed the shuttle bus
from the Waterfront Campus and had to wait for the public bus from town. The
icing on the cake? I had a meeting with some class mates to work on a group
assignment, which I then ended up missing. Luckily my travels were not a
complete waste since I did have a class later that day which I was nice and
early for.
The moral of my story? Plan ahead, and
plan for the worst. This little tool saved me quite a few times; it’s
the VicLink Journey Planner and you can punch in where you are and where you
want to go and it will tell you what bus/train/tram will get you there. Public
transport is sometimes extremely unreliable, but there are good days. On one of
those it only really takes me an hour and a bit to get to Waurn Ponds.
Alternatively I also suggest that you talk to the people in
your course – you’d be amazed at how many people you might meet who live close
to you and drive to Uni. I’m not saying you should stalk people who have their
green P’s or a full license, but I definitely recommend carpooling. Deakin even
has a service to help you out; TravelSmart.
Hopefully you don’t have too many dramas with travelling to
Uni, although feel free to comment and share if you do, or if you have any more
advice for new students. Travel safe!
